Fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim is “very much alive” and periodic rumours that he has died in Pakistan have no basis, veteran investigative journalist Sheela Raval told the Free Press Journal in an exclusive interview.
In the interview, which was published on Tuesday, Raval was asked about rumours that Ibrahim, whom India accuses of being the mastermind of the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts, has died or is terminally ill.
In response, Raval said: “My sources say that he is very much alive. He is 70. He was born in 1955, according to his dossier. So, he could be as old as any 70-year-old.”
The journalist acknowledged that rumours about the gangster’s death circulate from time to time. “But I don’t think that he is dead yet.”
Depiction in Dhurandhar 2
Ibrahim was portrayed in the Hindi film Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge as an ageing, bedridden man, in sharp contrast to his previous depictions as a stylish and feared don.
On whether such a depiction was accurate, Raval said: “The movie portrays Ibrahim as incapacitated. But if you look at the overall picture, he is the villain of the whole thing. The movie was not against Pakistan. The villain was an Indian gangster. Of course, he is a global terrorist now.”
D-Company mere cog, says journalist
The veteran journalist said that Ibrahim and his “D-company” are now merely “small cogs in a larger geopolitical design”.
India has long maintained that Ibrahim lives in Pakistan’s Karachi and is being protected by the country’s intelligence agency, the Inter Services Intelligence. Pakistan has, however, refuted the allegations.
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